The app completely disregards the other aspects of weight homeostasis, like vitamin and mineral intake, oversimplifying weight loss and underestimating the importance of an overall healthy diet. If you’re below your calorie goal one day on MyFitnessPal, it gives you an estimation of how much you’ll weigh in five weeks if “everyday was like today,” based off energy balance calculations. The more weight you lose, the fewer calories you burn at rest.
In real life, however, metabolism is much more complicated. If you’re burning your body’s stores, you’ll lose weight. Burning more calories than you eat puts your body in negative energy balance, forcing you to metabolize your stored energy in tissues. Losing weight is, in theory, very simple, and probably super boring if you don’t love biochemistry. MyFitnessPal abuses the effectiveness of food journaling by focusing too much on weight loss, as opposed to healthy lifestyle. In most cases, weight loss should really be seen as an outcome of healthy lifestyle behaviours, and not as its own goal. Food journaling is known to be an effective strategy for weight loss, holding the individual accountable for their food choices (I really like to think that if I don’t write down that I had Mini Eggs for breakfast, it doesn’t actually count). After punching in your height, weight, age, activity level, and weight loss goals, it shoots out your calorie goal.
MyFitnessPal is a calorie counting app that’s marketed as a weight loss tool. I gave her a dirty look and started a passionate monologue about just how fabulous milk is, but her eyes just about rolled out of her head before she said “K whatever, tomorrow I just won’t have milk so that I’ll have enough calories left over to have some nachos.”
A couple months ago, my friend, while logging her dinner into MyFitnessPal, asked me why milk is “so bad for you.” She was upset that her cup of one per cent milk had over 100 calories, putting her over her daily calorie goal.
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